Neymar's Return to Brazil Training: Still Absent from Action

Neymar is back in Brazil training. He is smiling, joking with teammates, moving freely again after a calf injury. But he is still nowhere near the pitch when it matters.

Brazil’s record goalscorer, with 79 goals for his country, rejoined full training at the World Cup in the United States this week. It was a welcome sight for a squad that opened its campaign with a stuttering 1-1 draw against Morocco. Yet when the team sheet dropped for the second group game against Haiti on Friday, his name was missing again.

Carlo Ancelotti did not even put him on the bench.

The decision underlines the delicate balance Brazil are trying to strike with a 34-year-old superstar whose body keeps interrupting his story. Diagnosed in late May with a right calf injury, Neymar has managed only half of Santos’ matches this year, his season chopped up by one fitness issue after another. For the national team, his last appearance dates back to October 2023.

So yes, Neymar is here. But he is not really here.

That was the joke, at least, from one of Brazil’s most famous voices. Asked by a young boy about the forward, former president Lula cut in with a quip that captured the national mood.

“Neymar? He is not even playing!” he replied, before twisting the knife with another line: Neymar, he said, was the first player ever “called up to the national team who is working remotely.”

The 80-year-old was speaking at a hospital ceremony in Belo Horizonte and has turned this World Cup into his own running stand-up routine. After the draw with Morocco, he even teased that he was thinking of signing Lionel Messi to play for Brazil. It was mischief, of course, but the punchline landed because it touched a truth: Brazil are still waiting for the version of Neymar who once seemed capable of carrying a World Cup on his shoulders.

Inside the camp, the tone is less playful. Ancelotti and his staff, according to Brazilian reports, are determined not to rush the forward back just to satisfy the impatience outside. They know the temptation. This is Brazil’s all-time leading scorer, a man who has been central to the last three World Cup campaigns, suddenly available again in the middle of a tight group.

The staff are resisting that urge. For now.

Neymar trained with his teammates for the first time on Wednesday, a significant step after weeks of individual work. The session offered a glimpse of what might still be possible in this tournament, but also a reminder of the risk. One wrong sprint, one mistimed stretch of that right calf, and Brazil could lose him not just for the group stage, but for the knockouts as well.

That is why his call-up raised eyebrows in the first place. Given his age and his recent injury history, some expected Brazil to move on, or at least to build a plan that did not depend on him. Instead, he is here in the United States, a towering presence in the dressing room, a magnet for cameras in training, and yet a spectator when the whistle blows.

The schedule does not slow down for sentiment. After Haiti, Brazil close their group against Scotland in Miami on June 24, a match that could decide both their path in the tournament and Neymar’s role in it. If the team stumbles, the pressure to throw him straight back into the fire will only grow louder. If they qualify early, Ancelotti might finally have the breathing space to manage his minutes on his own terms.

For now, Brazil’s greatest goalscorer waits, the World Cup rolls on without him, and a familiar question hangs over this team: how long can they afford to keep Neymar as an onlooker, and what will be left of him when they finally call his name?